Caption: Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of the bracket fungus basidiocarp (fruiting body) lower surface showing skeletal (edge) and generative hyphae (gill, spore producing). Bracket fungi are so named because they occur as individual fruiting bodies (mushrooms) in a grouping or pattern known as a bracket. They generally cover a tree trunk in separate or connected horizontal rows. Oyster mushrooms are an example of delicate, edible bracket fungi, but shapes of other species vary from papery thin to thick, woody and large. Magnification: x4 when shortest axis printed at 25 millimetres.